The Supreme Court was moved on Monday to restrain the Balochistan chief minister and the head of the Mines and Minerals Development Directorate of the province to grant approval to the new licencees to start exploration at the Reko Diq gold and copper mines. The application was filed by former federal minister and Senator Azam Swati through his counsel Tariq Asad requesting the court to restrain the respondents – the chief minister and head of the Mines and Minerals Development Directorate of Balochistan – to give approval to the new licencees between EL-90 to EL-102 to start exploration at the Reko Diq mines. The applicant, however, requested the court to order respondents to allow EL-24 (Benway Corporation) to continue its work within its duly allotted licence until the final adjudication of the instant application. The applicant submitted that his petition over the matter was pending adjudication and was fixed for February 7 wherein the court had passed an interim order on May 25, 2011 that “the restraining order of February 3, 2011 is recalled and the competent authority in the Balochistan government will expeditiously decide TCC’s for grant of mining lease transparently and fairly in accordance with the law and the rules”.
He said the court in its order had also directed the Balochistan government to inform the court registrar after the competent authority took a decision over the matter. He said during the 120 days of the court order, the chief minister and the minister of mining managed to get five limited companies incorporated in the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and issued them 11 exploration licences illegally.
He said these companies were registered in Quetta and Karachi between May and September, 2011 and ELs were issued immediately in August and September 2011. He said these companies were not known as mining companies, adding that they were consisted of Pakistani directors but names of three Chinese citizens were included as directors in two companies. He said the Chinese individuals were not known to be of recognised credentials, adding that the new companies were registered in haste and given these licenses which, experts of the industry say, was done in a non-transparent manner as no bids were called and the qualifications of the bidding companies were not properly ascertained.
He said each of these five companies was given an area of about 500 sq km and the new blocks were named as ELs 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99,100,101, 102. Two of these new blocks, EL-91 and EL-92 were owned by an American mining company but the licences for the blocks were cancelled and these were renamed EL-23 and EL-24, and given to the newly-registered firms. Besides this, he said several other irregularities have also been done. He said under the Balochistan Mining Rules 2002, the Exploration Licences (ELs) may not be transferred before a period of two years, but two ELs, EL-94 and EL-102 have been transferred and sold within four months of their allotment.
He said a Canadian company, ME Resource Corp, had already announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire 70 percent of stakes in two exploration licences – EL-94 and EL-102, six kilometres west of Reko Diq for a payment of $6 million. It named its partners as Adza Minerals for EL-94 and Pure Minerals for EL-102, until December.
— allows agencies more time to submit reports on Balochistan
A three-member Supreme Court (SC) bench on Monday allowed the ISI and MI to submit their reports over the worsening law and order in Balochistan until February 10. The bench headed by CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry was hearing a petition filed by Balochistan High Court Bar Association (BHCBA) President Hadi Shakeel against target killings, kidnapping for ransom and the overall worsening law and order in the province. During the hearing, the court observed that no body was bothered to realise the sensitivity of Balochistan. The CJP noted that Balochistan should be considered as the country’s limbs. Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said that Balochistan was soul of Pakistan and if the soul would not be alive then there would be no Pakistan. Balochistan Advocate General Amanullah Kanrani said that steps were being taken to make the situation normal. Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq said that he could not get reports from the MI and ISI on which he requested the court to grant some more time, which the court allowed.
